


Always Sort of Linked

by Luna_Myth



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Planet, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Dating, F/M, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Friendship/Love, Holodecks/Holosuites, How Do I Tag, Huddling For Warmth, Hugs, I Don't Even Know, I'm Sorry, Jealousy, Kissing, Love Confessions, Minor Character(s), NaLi Fluff Fest, Planets, Reunions, Romance, Separations, Shapeshifting, Talking, True Love, ships, space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-08
Updated: 2016-05-08
Packaged: 2018-06-07 06:11:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6789601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luna_Myth/pseuds/Luna_Myth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life on the starship Fairy Tail is nearly perfect for Natsu, all things considered. He has friends, entertainment, food, and enough adventures for a lifetime. He also has Lisanna Strauss, who’s better than all those things combined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Confessions

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for the Nali Fluff Fest event on Tumblr, so we don't have much by way of plot. I hope everyone still likes it. There's a lot of stuff in the verse I didn't include.

_Two Years Prior_

Natsu fought his way to the end of the corridor, dodging past other crewmembers and grinning roguishly at them when they yelped in alarm. His smile seemed to imply he was up to something as he reached the end and entered a turbo-lift, but it faltered as soon as the doors closed. Nerves tried to overcome his state of excitement.

He was trying to find Lisanna. He didn’t know where she was on the ship, but he had to tell her something. Something very important. Something that was making him giddy and happy and nervous all at once. He had finally figured something out.

He was going to tell Lisanna Strauss that he loved her.

The turbo-lift doors opened and Natsu stuck his head out, looking for Lisanna. She wasn’t anywhere to be seen, but he exited the lift anyways, prepared to search the deck for her. Since she wasn’t on duty, there was a good chance she would be here, on the recreational floor. The crew spent a lot of time here when there wasn’t anything else to do. And since they were in space the vast majority of the time, and not orbiting some planet, that kind of thing happened a lot. Maybe Lisanna was in the main hall with her siblings.

Anticipation rose in Natsu’s chest and he practically jogged towards the hall, spurred on by the possibility of seeing Lisanna.

The few crewmembers loitering in the hallways called out to Natsu as he passed, but he didn’t stop to chat apart from saluting them in a friendly manner. Someone muttered something about how he seemed to be in an interesting mood, but Natsu ignored them and drew up short in front of the door to the hall. He collected himself for only a brief moment before barreling into the room.

Loud chatter and ambient noises and the smell of food and people assaulted Natsu’s senses as he scanned the crowd spread throughout the room. It was dark and messy and chaotic in the hall and crewmembers were talking and eating with little concern for the man who’d just entered it. Natsu couldn’t see Lisanna anywhere.

“Have you seen Lisanna around?” Natsu asked a nearby crewmember.

She shook her head. “Can’t say that I have. I think she’s gone off with Mirajane and Elfman. They’re looking for the source of the weird turbulence we’ve been having lately.”

Natsu’s excitement lessened slightly. “Oh. Thanks anyways, Cana.”

“Don’t mention it,” she said, raising one of the glasses she was carrying in his general direction, as if in a toast.

Cana wandered off back into the crowd and Natsu tried to think. He had no idea where Lisanna and the others would be looking for the source of the turbulence, but there was a good chance they would come back here afterwards. Most of the crew was here, after all, and an unofficial meeting was normally held here at the end of the day.

Natsu settled in to wait, hoping Lisanna wouldn’t be long. He was itching to tell her he loved her before he lost his nerve or something else happened to prevent him from saying it.

Twenty minutes passed and Natsu was considering striking out to look for her on his own again when the door opened. He grinned when he was met with the clean scent and white flash of Glaceterran fur. It could only be the Strauss siblings.

Natsu stood up, the only crewmember who’d been paying attention to any newcomers. A few other members had probably recognized the scent of the Strauss siblings, but they clearly weren’t anywhere near as enthused by their return as Natsu was. His face was lit up by excitement as he started to call out to them, waving a hand in greeting, prepared to express his pleasure at finding Lisanna.

But then Natsu faltered. Lisanna wasn’t there. Mirajane and Elfman had returned without her, both of them surprisingly worse for wear for a simple exploration of the ship. It looked like there had been some kind of fight, though Natsu couldn’t imagine what with, and both of their faces looked profoundly downcast. His greeting died in his throat.

“What happened?” Natsu asked when he got close enough, only a slight note of urgency in his voice. “Where’s Lisanna?”

Mirajane and Elfman looked at him. Elfman turned away.

“She’s gone,” Mirajane said. “She disappeared. We searched all over the ship and we couldn’t find her.”

A confusing cloud of emotions hit Natsu all at once. “S-she’s gone? How?” His voice hardened. “What happened?”

Mirajane shook her head. “We were looking for what was causing all the turbulence when something happened. Glowing light appeared and the atmosphere inside the ship started malfunctioning. We didn’t know what was going on, so Elfman transformed and… Long story short, Lisanna was hit into the light. She dissolved. We still don’t know what really happened.”

Elfman made a noise of sharp pain, like the retelling was breaking down his ability to hold himself together. Natsu would have felt sympathy for the man, who was clearly struggling not to cry, if he himself wasn’t feeling his mood sink blacker and blacker. Lisanna was somewhere unknown, assuming she wasn’t…

Dead. There was a chance the light, whatever it was, had killed her. Mirajane had said Lisanna had dissolved and Elfman wasn’t disputing it. Natsu felt the beginnings of anger.

“Take me there,” he demanded. “Take me to where she disappeared.”

“Natsu, I don’t think it’s going to-“ Elfman tried to say, his whole being pained.

“I said take me there!” Natsu roared, feeling flames crackle in the back of his throat. “I have to see for myself!”

The two remaining Strauss siblings led Natsu down the corridor, inside a turbo-lift, and into one of the cargo holds. The place was abandoned. With all the lights off and many of crates battered and tossed aside, like they’d been violently disrupted in a battle, it was clear something had disturbed the natural order of the hold. Natsu stepped forth towards the far bulkhead, testing the air for traces of Lisanna. They had all but disappeared.

In the center of the area was an odd circle, a discoloration of the steel floor. Kneeling down before it, Natsu noted a smell different from the rest of the ship and different from Lisanna. He didn’t know what it was, just that it didn’t belong here. His breath caught in his chest.

“She’s not here,” he said simply. He felt strangely detached. “I can’t even smell her anymore.”

He sank back on his knees with a sigh. “I guess this wasn’t a good day for a love confession after all.”

XXX

“Hey, Lisanna!”

Natsu’s words echoed across the corridor and Lisanna stopped in her tracks. She smiled and turned around.

“Yeah, Natsu?”

Her words hovered in the air, floating and existing so easily that Natsu’s grin widened further. His heart was pounding in a way that reminded him he was alive and the butterflies in his stomach were dancing in a way that reminded him Lisanna was alive and the corridor was emptying until it was just him and Lisanna. It was perfect.

“I really missed you when you were gone,” he said, filling the empty space of the corridor with the power of his words. “Even more than I thought I would and there was something I wanted to tell you.”

He had wanted to tell her he was in love with her so much when she was gone. He had spent a long time wishing he could have found her sooner. Told her faster. Loved her longer. He wasn’t about to waste his second chance.

“I love you, Lisanna,” Natsu confessed. “I was going to tell you two years ago, but we all know how that turned out.”

Lisanna gaped at him for a moment, her hands coming together in front of her chest and her eyes shining, before she launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders with the intensity of a lover and a fighter combined. He caught her and held her just as tight. The clean scent of Lisanna’s Glaceterran fur filled his nostrils and he breathed in even more deeply. He loved the smell of her, made better by the fact she was in his arms.

“I love you, too, Natsu,” Lisanna said with a quirky smile as she lifted her head from its place in Natsu’s neck to look at his face. Their noses were inches apart and he could feel her breath on his face. His grin returned.

“I was hoping you’d say that!” Natsu told her as he lifted her off the ground and spun them around in a circle. Lisanna’s legs bent to help his efforts and avoid touching the ground while he did so and she gave a brilliant laugh, bright and clear and beautiful.

When the ride slowed down and Natsu stopped spinning, Lisanna murmured something in his ear.

“I’ve been waiting for you to tell me that for years.”

She sounded so happy that Natsu had to resist the urge to kiss the top of her head, worried he’d break the spell. Her warmth was plenty enough for him anyways.

“ _I’ve_ been waiting to tell you for years,” he said instead. “So what do you say? Want to go on a date with me? I promise I’ll try not to set anything on fire.”

Lisanna set her feet back on the ground and looked at him with a mischievous gleam in her eye. That way she had of looking at him always made him blush and this instance was no exception. Natsu cleared his throat awkwardly and ducked his head.

“Yes,” she said. “I would definitely like to go on a date with you.”

“Next cool planet we pass sound good to you?”

“That sounds perfect,” Lisanna affirmed.

Natsu was already getting excited about it by the time they entered the turbo-lift.


	2. Laughter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the USS Fairy Tail escorting a diplomat, a task well outside his realm of expertise, Natsu finds himself with nothing to do.

Natsu leaned around the corner suspiciously, a crate of pranking supplies tucked under his arm. He couldn’t let anyone see him and he wasn’t supposed to see the diplomat they had onboard either. Erza and a few other crewmembers Natsu would rather not tangle with over this had told him as much.

A few days earlier, the USS Fairy Tail had brought a diplomat onboard. They were supposed to escort her between two planets in a system for peace negotiations, but Natsu wasn’t really involved in that. Some members of the crew had been elected to look after the diplomat and apart from the time the ship had been attacked by members of a pro-war faction, Natsu didn’t have anything to do on this job. It was a high paying mission, but largely a boring one so far.

Almost everyone in the crew had been tense since the diplomat was brought on. If everything went well, the USS Fairy Tail could afford to upgrade its holodeck. But if they upset the diplomat or something happened to her, they could kiss their reward money goodbye.

That was Natsu’s take on it, anyway. Lisanna, who had been allowed to greet the diplomat, had tried her best to explain it to him, but diplomacy, finance, and all the finer points of jobs had never been his strong suit.

There was no one else in the corridor to Natsu’s knowledge and he hurried forward towards the turbo-lift doors. With nothing to do and no one to fight, Natsu was getting bored and the best cure to that he knew of was pranks. Everyone was being so tense that he kind of thought the prank he had in mind would do some good to the crew’s morale.

In Natsu’s opinion, it would have been hard to make it worse.

He scanned the area, which was basically a short inlet by the turbo-lift doors which led to the main corridor. The bulkhead by the doors was made of the same steel as the rest of the ship and Natsu grinned as he pulled out a magnetic ladder ring from his crate. He then stuck it to the wall high enough up for him to reach the relatively low ceilings and gave it a curious pull. It held, so Natsu took several other items out of his crate before setting it down. It was time to put his plan into action.

He was just getting onto the ladder when the turbo-lift opened and the scent of Glaceterran fur flooded his senses. He shifted on the ladder to look.

“Natsu, what are you doing?” a familiar voice accused.

Unsurprisingly, it was Lisanna. Natsu momentarily felt sheepish before he pulled himself back together.

“I’m setting up a prank, of course!” he managed to say with a hint of indignation. Lisanna was observing him and his odd assortment of items sternly, her hands on her hips and her gaze fierce. Natsu quickly turned back to face the wall and begin setting up his mechanism. This was going to be great if it worked.

“Do I have to remind you that there’s a diplomat onboard?” she said skeptically. “Everyone would kill us if we messed this up!”

“Us?” Natsu asked in surprise, pulling his attention away from his rig. “What, are you offering to help? Because I could use a hand with the-“

“That’s not what I meant,” Lisanna tried to backtrack. “I just mean that this is really important and if anyone catches you setting up a prank, we’ll both get in trouble because I’m here trying to talk you out of it and I thought that you were going to ask if I wanted to help because I always have in the past and-“

Natsu cut off her ramble. “Okay, okay, I see what you mean.” He gave an awkward laugh. “We’re always sort of linked like that, aren’t we? It’s a good thing I don’t mind. I actually like having that link with you, Lisanna, even if it’s going to get us into trouble.”

Lisanna’s lip curved upwards. “The idea is for us to get into trouble _together_ so we can help each other, Natsu. Don’t go off doing stupid things on your own.”

“This isn’t stupid!” Natsu argued, completely ignoring the prank he was trying to set up. “It’s just a prank and everyone on this ship could use a good laugh. That diplomat’s draining all the fun out of running a starship.”

“That’s a bit harsh,” Lisanna shot back, but she sounded reluctant to carry on the argument.

“You’re only saying that because you’re afraid of getting in trouble with Erza and everyone,” said Natsu. “Come on, it’ll be fine! Just like old times.”

Lisanna snickered and Natsu shot a glance over his shoulder.

“We always got in troubles in old times,” she said.

“Yeah, come on!” Natsu repeated. “Let’s do that again!”

Lisanna opened her mouth to reply, but just as she was going to speak, Natsu lost his balance and fell off the ladder, wind-milling away from Lisanna. He tried to grab for her as he fall and only succeeded in taking her down with him. She yelped in surprise.

The container of glitter Natsu had planned on dumping on whoever next used the turbo-lift flew up into the air and emptied its contents everywhere, leaving Natsu and Lisanna lying in a heap and covered in glitter.

“Aw man!” Natsu complained loudly, focusing mainly on the spilled glitter. “Now what am I going to prank people with?”

Lisanna sneezed and shook her head to try and get the glitter out of her fur and Natsu suddenly realized how very close she was to him. He had dragged her down on top of him and she was currently lying on his chest, covered in glitter and looking ridiculously adorable for it. When she had shaken her head she had lifted it to be just a few inches away and a bit off to his left. If he moved just a little bit closer, he could capture her lips with his own and…

The turbo-lift doors opened, snapping Natsu out of his trance.

A fairly large group of people stepped out, including the diplomat, and immediately began gawking at the pair of them sprawled on the floor and covered in glitter. There was a moment of silence.

Then Natsu started laughing uproariously, having realized he had pranked himself, and Lisanna started laughing with him, although Natsu didn’t know why, and soon the corridor was filled with good-natured laughter. He tried to explain what had happened to the newcomers, but it only made everyone laugh harder and eventually he gave up and returned his attention to the beautiful sight of Lisanna laughing. She caught his gaze, her eyes sparkling.

Eventually the two of them stood up and dusted themselves off and everyone continued with their duties, but Natsu found that the rest of the time the diplomat was onboard was much more relaxed.

Some of the crew started up a prank war in response to Natsu’s failed attempt, which filled him with an odd sort of pride. He and Lisanna soon had a lot planned for it, as he had to agree that getting trouble together was the way to go.


	3. Shared Warmth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natsu and Lisanna are stranded on a very cold planet together.

“I can’t believe they just left us like that!” Natsu fumed, pacing back and forth and gesturing with his hands animatedly.

Lisanna hid a smile and tried to calm him down. She knew the ship would return soon enough, but in the meantime, Natsu needed to relax. The planet they were on was cold and barren and it was entirely possible Natsu would freeze to death if he kept wandering around complaining wildly. As a Glaceterran, Lisanna was all but immune to the cold for her home world was a frozen place often wrecked by snowstorms, but Natsu’s species had a reptilian aspect to them. Despite his energetic movements and ability to breath fire, she could see his fingers going stiff from the cold. And they had only been stranded for ten minutes so far.

“They’ll be back soon,” she said. “For now, we need to make sure you don’t freeze while we’re waiting.”

Natsu stopped pacing and turned to her. “Make sure _I_ don’t freeze? What about you? You can’t even create fire to stay warm!”

“I don’t have to go to all that trouble to stay warm,” said Lisanna, crossing her arms. “Not when I can just do this.”

She gave him an amused look as she transformed into a polar bear, the white fur on her hands extending over her body easily like a softly gleaming wave. She grew in size and fell gracefully forward onto four feet, her limbs becoming strong and muscled appendages befitting her new form. Claws emerged from her new paws and her sense of smell heightened until she imagined it was just as good as Natsu’s. Her eyes stayed about the same for some reason, catching the moment of realization on Natsu’s face when he understood.

“Oh,” he said. “Right. You and your siblings can do that. Some kind of Glaceterran thing.”

He looked grouchy at having been shown up so Lisanna nuzzled him affectionately with her new snout.

“Don’t feel bad, Natsu,” Lisanna said warmly, having kept her vocal cords. “I think you’d have the advantage if we got stuck on a really hot planet. My fur wouldn’t do us any good there.”

“I am pretty great when it’s hot out,” Natsu agreed, petting Lisanna absently as he scanned the landscape. “It’s the Drakony in me.”

While Lisanna had her siblings and even a home planet called Glaceteros, no one was really sure what Natsu was or where he was from. There were a few other people on the ship with similar traits to him and the crew in general referred to people like Natsu as Nemkony, which roughly meant children of the Drakony. Other than that, though, there was no one like Natsu, biologically or otherwise. He and the others said they had been raised by aliens on planets no one knew the names of and that was why they were how they were. A lot of people were hesitant to believe this, especially when Natsu had first come on board, but Lisanna always had. It made perfect sense for who Natsu was, physically and mentally.

“I’ll bet it is,” said Lisanna, sensing an opportunity for a story. “Was the planet you were raised on very hot?”

Natsu stopped looking around for whatever it was he was searching for. Lisanna thought maybe he’d finally realized the monolith they were standing next to was the only thing of note on the whole planet.

“It might have been,” he said hesitantly. “But I didn’t know any different at the time. For all I know, it was my dad who was keeping the place warm and the rest of the planet was freezing.”

“Yeah?” she said encouragingly. “What was he like, then?”

Natsu frowned. “I’m sure I’ve told you this story before.”

“I’d like to hear it again.” Lisanna tried to smiled ironically, but the sensation felt wrong without lips. “It’s not like we have anything else to do while we wait.”

“Yeah we do,” Natsu contested. “I’ve been looking for trees so we can build a fire this whole time!”

“And have you found any?”

“No…” Natsu replied sulkily. “But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any!”

He huffed and a cloud of smoke appeared where his breath met the cold air. Lisanna watched him cross his arms over his chest and look away from her. He was clearly freezing despite trying not to show it. Every muscle in his body was tense, like he was shivering.

“Why don’t you just let me help you?” Lisanna asked him, trying to nudge him closer. “I have warmth to spare.”

She went to sit down in the relative shelter of the monolith and looked at him expectantly.

“W-What?!” Natsu’s eyes widened, frantically looking over Lisanna’s polar bear form. “Like hugging me or something? But you’re a polar bear right now and I’m fine anyway, it’s-“

“You look freezing,” Lisanna said candidly. “Come on, Natsu, get over here. I know what I’m doing. You can tell me that story while I make sure you don’t freeze to death.”

Grumbling, Natsu walked over to Lisanna and hesitated a moment longer before sitting down beside her with his back to the monolith. She gently tugged him over to her, careful of her claws, and draped one of her front legs around his shoulders like a fluffy white shawl. Ironically, he was already wearing his trademark scarf, but she could still feel how cold his cheek was where it met the fur of her upper body. He turned his mouth away so he could talk.

“My dad was kind of like this,” Natsu began, not looking at Lisanna. “Only he had scales instead of fur. But he was warmer than a fire and stronger than anyone else in the galaxy and big. He wouldn’t have been able to fit on the ship. Instead he lived in a cave with me and he showed me how I could breathe fire and do all sorts of cool stuff! He wasn’t exactly kind, but I know he loved me. He taught me everything that I knew when I first joined the Fairy Tail and he never let anything bad happen to me, except when it could teach me a lesson.”

Natsu stopped shivering and was slowly becoming relaxed as he leaned into Lisanna. She rested her head next to his and thought she felt Natsu touch her front paw for a moment. Then his arm drew away back to his side and he continued his tale.

“One day he disappeared,” Natsu said simply. “I couldn’t find him anywhere on the planet that I’d been to before and even when I ventured out, he was nowhere to be seen.”

Natsu shifted closer to Lisanna, stubbornly looking out towards the horizon with unfocused eyes rather than looking at her. She breathed in the scent of his hair. It was sharp and spicy, but it reminded Lisanna of a type of chocolate she’d tried once, with a more relaxing and pleasantly warm smell underneath it. She wasn’t sure what it would smell like if she was herself and not a polar bear, but she thought she might like it even more with Glaceterran senses.

“He could fly, you know,” Natsu continued eventually. “I think he left the planet. He’s probably out there somewhere, flying through space all on his own, and some day he’ll come find me. He’s super powerful. I’m sure he could do it.”

“Definitely, Natsu,” Lisanna agreed, feeling the need to reassure him.

He didn’t say anything else for a while and Lisanna wondered whether he was gathering his thoughts or merely finished speaking.

“In the meantime,” Lisanna said, breaking the short silence that had descended, “you have me and the rest of the crew.” A bittersweet note entered her voice. “So don’t ever let me hear about you being lonely.”

Natsu tried to scoff. “Of course not. I can’t possibly get lonely with you around all the time.”

“And that’s the way it’s going to stay.”

Lisanna nuzzled up against him for her own comfort as much as Natsu’s warmth. Not long ago, she hadn’t even been able to touch him, let alone cuddle him. The two of them had both been lonely at one point in their lives or another. For this reason, the effect of Natsu’s presence was soothing to Lisanna and not something she felt she could ever take for granted again. It was only when she admitted this to herself that she realized she had never told Natsu much about her time in the other dimension, Edolas, and how lonely parts of it had been.

“Since the ship’s not here yet, I could tell a story,” Lisanna offered. “I think it’d be good for both of us, and not just to help pass the time.”

“Go for it, Lisanna,” Natsu said carelessly, snuggling into her fur like he was going to take a nap. He’d certainly warmed up to the sharing warmth situation.

“The people of the Edolas dimension figured out right away that I wasn’t from there,” she began without further explanation. “For one thing, they knew for a fact that their Lisanna was dead. But for another, no one there had ever heard of Glaceterrans. The Edolas versions of my siblings couldn’t shapeshift and when they ran some tests, they found that we had little in common biologically. No one was like how they are in this dimension, which meant that I wasn’t like anyone from _that_ dimension. And so things were awkward between me and the members of the crew. They couldn’t figure out how I’d gotten there and I couldn’t tell them either. I didn’t know.”

She would have given a wistful smile if she’d been in her normal form, thinking back on her time spent away. Instead she rubbed the side of her face against the back of Natsu’s head, her white fur almost getting caught in his pink hair. Natsu twitched, but didn’t protest.

“Eventually it was accepted that I would be staying on the ship. I couldn’t leave it even if it wasn’t the right one. So I helped out with what I could around the ship and tried to remain on good terms with the crew of that dimension, but it never felt quite right.”

Lisanna chuckled in place of a smile and said, “I think it’s pretty obvious that it wasn’t my home. I missed you and my siblings and the rest of the crew, even though everyone in Edolas was nice enough.”

“Yeah?” Natsu perked up. “That other Natsu wasn’t all that great when I got the chance to meet him. You’re much better off here.”

“That’s the idea, Natsu,” Lisanna informed him. “I was getting kind of lonely without you and the others. I’m really glad I’m back.”

Natsu lifted his head for a moment and looked around. “Speaking of getting back, when _are_ they going to show up? It’s been ages!”

“Let them take their time,” Lisanna suggested. “I’m more than okay just being here with you.”

“If you say so,” Natsu mumbled, ducking his head into Lisanna’s fur to hide what she suspected was a blush.

They were rescued ten minutes later, if it could be classified as a rescue with Lisanna so happy being where she was.


	4. Embrace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lisanna and Natsu go to a restaurant together on a date.

The restaurant was quietly busy. Waiters and customers moved from the service area to tables to the back of the room to the service area again, all without hassle or commotion. The place had an open-air vibe to it that Lisanna liked a lot and Natsu across from her was looking around in interest, seemingly thriving off the quiet activity. It might have been Lisanna’s favorite attempted date spot so far.

She looked around for their waiter in concern as the thought struck her. After multiple attempts for an actual date with Natsu, Lisanna had almost been forced to conclude that it wasn’t going to happen. Each time something had come up. An emergency on the ship, a changed duty schedule, and even an old enemy had all conspired to stop their date from happening. But here she and Natsu were, sitting in a restaurant, smiling at each other, trying again. Lisanna grabbed Natsu’s hand and squeezed it hopefully as she caught sight of their waiter.

Natsu looked at her in surprise for a moment before grinning.

“Alright!” he said cheerfully, taking in the sight of their food arriving. “Our food’s here! I’ve always wanted to try this stuff.”

“Do you even know what that is?” Lisanna teased, pointing towards Natsu’s plate. “It looks kind of fancy for your tastes.”

“I know what it is,” Natsu insisted, spearing some of what he had gotten on his fork. “It’s fancy food! See, look in the menu!”

Lisanna did as he asked and saw what he was referring to. Whatever he had ordered wasn’t written in the standard language of their quadrant of space. Lisanna supposed that did make it exotic, which was kind of close to fancy.

“I don’t think that says fancy food, Natsu,” Lisanna said thoughtfully. “But it’s certainly interesting.” She glanced down at her own food and then back up at him. “These are just some type of noodle, I think. With a sauce.”

“Can I try them?” Natsu asked through a mouthful of his own meal. He had sauce on his upper lip.

“Only after I’ve tried them first,” she answered, staring at him in amusement. He seemed completely unaware of the etiquette of eating in a restaurant or at the very least, he didn’t care. Lisanna found it endearing, although she couldn’t quite admit it.

She tried the noodles. They reminded her of a recipe her friend Lucy had made once, a recipe created by humans on Earth. Natsu watched her curiously.

“They’re pretty good,” Lisanna decided. “You can try some now.”

She put some noodles on her fork and held it towards Natsu, aiming for his mouth.

His eyes widened and he glanced around the restaurant, for the first time aware of how conspicuous their actions were as a couple of off-worlders on a date. Lisanna smiled at him mischievously and arched an eyebrow.

“Wha-, okay then,” Natsu stuttered nervously. He accepted her offering of noodles and then withdrew, his cheeks heating up as he swallowed.

“They kind of remind me of something,” he said, tilting his head like he was trying to remember.

“I think it was one of Lucy’s recipes,” said Lisanna. Her heart fluttered lightly at Natsu’s silly expression and relaxed posture. She could hardly believe that nothing had interrupted them yet.

It was of course at that moment that a loud commotion occurred outside the restaurant. She and Natsu tensed, prepared to get to their feet. The racket continued and they both stood up, exchanging a look as they headed for the door. It was a matter of course for them to go find out what was happening and see how they could help. It always happened when any members of the crew of Fairy Tail were down on a planet, but Lisanna still felt a pang as they abandoned their food and rushed for the door.

“Lisanna?” Natsu looked back at her from the door and she realized she had stopped moving.

“Sorry,” Lisanna tried to brush it off and keep heading for the exit.

“No, wait,” Natsu said, coming closer to her, abandoning his standing by the door. He looked like he was struggling for words.

“I know you wanted this one to work out,” he managed to say. “Especially because all of our other dates got interrupted. It’ll have to work out sometime. But we’ve got to go help now, because something’s going on out there.”

“I know,” Lisanna assured him. “It’s fine.”

Natsu gave her a charming awkward smile. “You know I want to go on a date with you, right? It’s going to be great when it works out.”

Lisanna smiled back at him. “Yeah, of course.”

Natsu pulled her into a hug, grinning, before stepping back to look at her. Lisanna’s eyes searched his face for a moment, twinkling with fondness for him. But then the noise from outside reached a fervor pitch and she remembered the task at hand.

“We have plenty to do while we wait for that to happen, too,” Lisanna said playfully. “Let’s go check out whatever’s happening outside.”

“Oh right!” Natsu said, switching tracks back to his adventurous self. “Let’s go!”

He grabbed her hand, she squeezed back, and they rushed out the door together, thoughts of the date they were abandoning falling away in the excitement.


	5. Reunite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natsu finds himself somewhere very similar to Fairy Tail but with several important differences.

_Two Months Earlier_

Natsu could tell something wasn’t right. The ship looked scarred and abandoned, the halls barely lit by emergency power, warped metal lining the bulkheads. It wasn’t Fairy Tail in the traditional sense, but Natsu still recognized it all. He could smell the familiar materials and metals and people that had always been the first thing he was aware of each morning, the unadorned scent of a starship. He liked it a lot, but something was wrong with it now. He couldn’t pin it down.

The others were nowhere to be seen. There had been an overwhelming light, a person in the mist, and suddenly he was back on the ship, which was different than normal, but still Fairy Tail. Natsu knew his friends and this ship anywhere. And he knew they had to be around here somewhere.

Happy was with him, looking very confused and disorientated. He looked to Natsu for answers, but the Nemkony didn’t have any. Natsu shrugged absentmindedly as he tried to figure out what was wrong. He thought he recognized something else…

“Come on, Happy,” Natsu gestured, suddenly moving down the hall. “Let’s see what this is all about.”

He recognized the layout of the ship and began automatically heading towards the main hall on the assumption that if there were any other people on the ship, they would be there. His footsteps echoed around the corridors while Happy flew silently beside him, peering around nervously. The speed of the journey reminded Natsu of a different time he’d raced to the hall, but in place of excitement was a burning need for answers and grim determination.

“Here!” Natsu said, stopping Happy from flying on.

“Are you sure, Natsu?” Happy asked, looking worried.

“Yeah, I can hear voices,” replied Natsu, pushing open the door. “You’ll see.”

Natsu was right. There were people in the room, familiar people, the crew of Fairy Tail, or so it appeared. He noticed that a lot of them were dressed strangely and something still felt wrong. Maybe something had happened when the light had appeared to change them. Natsu looked around, studying the area and listening to the tense conversations of the crew. No one had noticed him and Happy yet. Everyone was busy talking and drinking. He wondered if the others had gotten here faster than him.

“This isn’t right,” Happy said, watching the crew in suspicion. “Gray would never dress like that. And where’s Erza?”

“I don’t know, do I?” Natsu said, annoyed. “It’s all weird. Why don’t we just ask someone what’s going on?” He caught sight of Lucy and began to wave in her direction. “Hey, Lucy, what’s going-“

Happy flew to him and cut him off, sticking a paw over his mouth. Natsu gave a muffled noise of indignant surprise and Happy shook his head warningly.

“Wha-?”

Natsu’s heart stopped beating. Across the room, he finally noticed someone breaking up a fight between two crewmembers, clearly a commonplace occurrence. She was beautiful, smaller than him but strong, with soft looking skin and even softer looking white fur serving as hair. She had to be Glaceterran. The fur covered the backs of her hands as well, reminiscent of cat paws, and she had a stern, nearly maternal look on her face. Her eyes were large and bright, bright blue, the most brilliant Natsu had ever seen. They could only belong to one person: Lisanna.

All of a sudden his heart kicked back to life, pounding violently in his chest in time to the tumult of feeling rising in him. The world was heightened and bright and bold and loud and focused completely to the point where Lisanna Strauss was standing, none the wiser.

Natsu couldn’t believe she was real. He couldn’t believe she was standing there. Happy beside him had brought his paws up to his mouth, his eyes wide in shock. But the world kept spinning around them without a second thought.

“L-Lisanna!” Natsu called out in a strangled voice, getting stronger and louder towards the end.

“Lisanna!” Happy shouted in a voice of pure joy.

The two of them rushed forward into the crowd, desperate to see if she was real.

“You there!” a voice commanded sharply. “Stop!”

Natsu jumped and slid to a halt. Reality tried to come crashing down around his ears, but he ignored it as he jerked his head back and forth between Lisanna and the place the voice had come from. No one else moved.

It was Lucy who had spoken. Or someone who looked a lot like her. The cold expression on her face was completely wrong and her tone had spoken of harsh unadorned steel, a total contrast to her normal silk-covered iron. He looked between Lisanna and Lucy again and the truth hit him, drastically altering his perspective and causing his heartrate to spike.

“Wait!” Natsu said hurriedly to the person who was Lucy but not. “I can explain! I figured out what happened!”

She stopped in her march towards him. “And what did happen?”

“We changed dimensions!” he explained excitedly, looking to Happy for support. “One minute we were onboard Fairy Tail like normal and then when all the light appeared, we were sent to the place Lisanna ended up two years ago! You’re not our Lucy, right? And there’s no way that’s Gray over there.”

He came to a dead stop and studied Lisanna again, focusing on her fur, her eyes, her smell…

“But she,” he said softly, “Lisanna… she has to be ours.”

She had finally noticed him and Happy. Her eyes widened in realization as she watched him argue his case to Lucy. A tray she had been holding fell to the floor with a clatter.

XXX

They were back in the right dimension. Natsu knew it instinctively the moment the light faded away. The scent was right, the bridge was well-lit, and the ship was in perfect shape. The crewmembers around him gave sighs of relief, but Natsu’s thoughts immediately jumped ahead to more important matters: had Lisanna made it back with the rest of them?

As if to answer his question, the door to the bridge opened and Lisanna stepped through. Natsu felt something warm and fragile fill his chest as the room quieted, conversations falling away to dull murmurs. He drank in the sight of her in awe, completely speechless for a moment. He watched Lisanna looked around the bridge in a daze.

She smiled fondly, a faraway look in her eyes, and Natsu broke out of his trance as his breath hitched. She was real.

“Lisanna!” he shouted desperately. He dashed forward, making his way to her in a blur, and the next moment, he was right in front of her, close enough to touch and still moving. He reached her with enough momentum to nearly knock them over as he pulled her into his arms and buried his face in her neck. She smelled the same as he remembered, soothing and clean and natural. A noise between a laugh and a sob bubbled up from his throat.

“Natsu...” Lisanna said, her voice cracking with emotion. He felt the vibration of her saying his name and squeezed her tighter. She hugged him back and he started breathing again, deep full breaths of relief that steadied his heartbeat and strengthened his being.

“You’re here,” he breathed. “You’re alive.”

“You’re here,” she said back, a smile in her voice. “I thought I’d never see you again. The real Natsu.”

“Well, I couldn’t let that stand,” Natsu replied automatically, still relishing the feel of Lisanna in his arms. “I had to see you again somehow.”

She chuckled breathlessly. “I kind of doubt that you planned this.”

“Wasn’t me, that’s for sure,” he agreed. “But it was always going to happen.”

Natsu took a deep breath and drew back enough to see Lisanna’s face.

“I can’t believe you’re real.”

His voice cracked and his vision blurred and Lisanna held his hand, her own eyes gleaming with tears, as the night worn on in a haze of laughter and speech and rekindled love.


	6. Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew of Fairy Tail throw an impromptu party for the guests on the ship.

With only a skeleton crew running the ship during the night shift and everyone in a celebratory mood, the main hall was filled with crewmembers and visitors engaged in loud chatter and wild festivities. People were drinking and laughing and arguing and cheering for a drinking game several people were playing. The overhead lights were dim, leaving only glowing lights along the floor and walls to brighten the room. It gave the room the distinct vibe of a party in progress, forcing Lisanna to do a double take when she entered the hall searching for her boyfriend. There wasn’t a party scheduled for that night, but it appeared one was well in hand.

Lisanna spotted Natsu once her eyes adjusted. He was standing off to the side of the room, having a conversation with someone. Lisanna didn’t recognize the person, but they were on the receiving end of the full force of Natsu’s anger for some reason. Her boyfriend gestured wildly and puffed out his chest like a preening dragon to the vague annoyance of the newcomer. Lisanna smiled and shook her head, amused by his over-the-top responses.

As if sensing her reaction, Natsu’s head jerked over towards Lisanna, who was standing by the door, and a mischievous expression briefly crossed his face before it settled into a crooked grin. Natsu said something to the visitor and walked off.

Within a few seconds, it was obvious Natsu was weaving his way through the crowd to her. He dodged under arms holding drinks and slid around the corner of the bar as Lisanna watched on in puzzlement, remaining just inside the main hall on the edge of the room.

“There you are, Lisanna!” he exclaimed, a little louder than necessary, but well within his normal range of speech.

“Of course,” she said, laughing in pleasure. “It’s good to see you too, Natsu.”

He tilted his head to the side, grinning, and, having already been standing quite close to her in the crowded room, swooped in to kiss her deeply. He captured her lips with more enthusiastic than grace, but it was clear to Lisanna that he was trying to be gentle, like he wasn’t sure what he was doing but knew he didn’t want to hurt her. She wrapped her arms around him automatically in response and tilted her head to match him.

The kiss lasted until Lisanna was running out of breath, at which point Natsu pulled away, gasping and disheveled. Lisanna felt much the same, inhaling a huge intake of air as she reeled backwards slightly. The long fur on her head fell into her face, partly covering her eyes. She shook it out of the way and gave Natsu a look of breathless confusion.

He opened his mouth to explain, but Lisanna was suddenly aware of how many eyes were on them. Crewmembers and visitors to the ship alike were staring at them in surprise, most notably the visitor Natsu had argued with, who looked wounded by the display. Lisanna turned back to Natsu and raised an eyebrow, her breathing steadying.

Natsu sheepishly pulled Lisanna off to the side, away from the door, still standing closer to her than normal due to the crowded room.

“That visitor was going to make a move on you,” he said grumpily. “The idiot didn’t have a clue what was going on.”

“Oh was that all?” Lisanna laughed. “Way to overreact, Natsu.”

“Hey!” he said indignantly. “That was a perfectly normal reaction!” He paused thoughtfully. “I don’t think I’ve been kissing you enough.”

“That’s an odd thing to say,” Lisanna commented. “Why would you say that?”

“Well look around,” he said. “Everyone seemed really surprised to find me kissing you.”

Lisanna reached out and stroked Natsu’s hair affectionately. “It’s true that you’re not really the kissing type. But it doesn’t make a difference to me. What do you think?”

“I don’t know!” Natsu said, seemingly frustrated with himself. He covered Lisanna’s hand with his own and she smiled at the feel of his strong hand’s light touch.

“Then don’t worry about it,” she reassured him. “Here.”

She leaned forward and kissed him on the nose, smiling as she pulled away. Natsu’s face went scarlet. It was funny how when he initiated a passionate kiss for the sake of warding away a visitor, he was confident and full of bravado. But a gentle kiss from Lisanna always seemed to send him wildly out of sorts. Lisanna loved that about him.

“I-I think the crew’s only just figured out we’re dating,” Natsu stammered, looking around the room in embarrassment. His hand was still on Lisanna’s. “And you always seem to think that I’m the one not paying attention.”

“Only because you usually are,” Lisanna teased. “You’re lucky it’s so endearing.”

“Gray’s got that look on his face,” Natsu said darkly, not paying attention despite his bold words. “I’ll show him…”

“Fine, you go to that, Natsu,” Lisanna relented. “But don’t be surprised if he’s only staring because he can’t believe you found someone willing to date you.” She winked at Natsu, who had briefly returned his attention to her.

“I’ll show him,” he said again. “Thanks, Lisanna.”

“Thanks for what?”

He hesitated on his way to Gray. “Er- I don’t know! Everything!”

Lisanna giggled and said, “Anytime, Natsu.”


	7. Superheroes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew gathers in the holodeck for a game.

Chaos reigned in the holodeck, friends and holograms dashing between tall buildings, shouts and taunts echoing through the projected streets. Natsu was having the time of his life amidst the fighting and confusion. It didn’t matter to him that their enemies, a group of super villains, were only hard-light images created by the ship’s computer. He enjoyed the thrill and the challenge and the time spent with his friends regardless of actual danger.

With Fairy Tail stuck in between jobs, the crew had arranged for a large-scale event in the holodeck, featuring crew members getting dressed up as superheroes to fight holographic super villains. Natsu loved the idea and Lisanna had thought it could be fun, so the two of them had teamed up to prepare for the event. This mostly resulted in Natsu getting a very cool costume out of Lisanna, who had the better attention span for designing and replicating an outfit. Natsu had tried to make up for this by suggesting name ideas, but none of them had stuck.

The end result was Natsu dressed in black with a white cape that somehow matched the scarf he was still wearing and a red mask that only served to cover the area around his eyes, sort of like a bandana. Lisanna’s outfit was white where his was black and blue where it was any other color. Apart from differing symbols on the chest, they were very similar costumes, which made Natsu suspect that their characters were partners within the story as well as outside of it. It had made him grin when they’d first put them on.

“Alright!” Natsu exclaimed as he surveyed the flurry of costumed heroes and villains fighting. “Let’s go, Lisanna! Check out that guy over there! I bet it’d be fun to tangle with the likes of him.”

He started to scamper off towards the fight, moving with awkward excitement in his stretchy superhero costume, but Lisanna grabbed his arm. Natsu yelped and tried to turn around.

“Aw, what’s going on?” he asked in confusion. “Am I missing something? Or is there someone we need to fight over here first?”

“You’re getting a bit carried away,” Lisanna informed him. “We should think the fight through before charging in for once. See over there?” She pointed towards an alley leading behind a tall building. “If we circle around, we’ll have surprise on our side. It could really help us out.”

Natsu’s confusion lessened before returning full force as he realized that Lisanna was speaking as if there was a chance they could lose the fight. The villains were only holograms after all. There was no way they could lose in Natsu’s mind.

“What? What would we need help for?” Natsu scratched his head.

Lisanna leaned in and whispered in his ear. “Come on, Natsu, get into the spirit of things. We’re superheroes protecting the city! Shouldn’t we make sure we succeed?”

“Uh, okay,” he agreed, feeling slightly less confused. “But we still could’ve taken them just fine without all this… strategy nonsense.”

“The strategy nonsense is half the fun,” Lisanna said in a cheerful tone as she dragged him along behind her towards the alleyway. He wasn’t putting up a fight.

“The less fun half, maybe,” said Natsu, complaining for the sake of it as he caught up to jog beside Lisanna. They quickly dashed down the street, jumping and climbing on abandoned holographic cars to make their way to the end of the alley. Natsu tightened his grip on Lisanna’s hand as they made an abrupt turn into another side street leading behind one of the skyscrapers. The towering building blocked out all of the projected sunlight. Natsu and Lisanna were absorbed by shadows.

“I thought everything in here was made of solid _light_ ,” Natsu grumbled. “Why’s it so dark?”

“ _Realism_ , Natsu,” said Lisanna, stressing the word. “Besides, I can see everything just fine.”

“Yeah, well, you have special cat eyes,” he mumbled darkly, sending a burst of fire to hover in his hand as a light source.

They crept around the building and peeked out from behind the corner on the other side. The noise of the fighting was muffled and in the darkness lay a sense of anticipation. Natsu thought he might be beginning to see what Lisanna meant about getting into the spirit of things. His awareness of his surroundings increased in his excitement.

“That guy there, yeah?” Natsu asked, looking to Lisanna for confirmation. “What’s his name, Zero? The big powerful looking one with the tattoos.”

“That’s our target alright,” Lisanna whispered back. “Got any sort of plan before we rush in there?”

“Hit him with fire,” Natsu answered immediately, a devilish smile curling his lips. “And if that doesn’t work, hit him again. I’ll repeat as necessary.” He cracked his knuckles in preparation.

“I don’t know why I bothered asking you,” Lisanna said, rolling her eyes. “Ready, Natsu?”

“I was born ready.”

XXX

“That took a bit longer than I expected,” Natsu commented, surveying the damaged city from a rooftop. Lisanna stood beside him. “Great workout from fighting that guy. Guess I’m done for today. Time to relax.”

“We’re not done just yet,” Lisanna chided. “We haven’t given a victory speech! Something to help wrap up the story.”

Natsu tilted his head in confusion. “What story? I thought we were fighting bad guys, not telling a story!”

“Everything is a story,” said Lisanna. “Come on, think about it!”

“But I don’t want to think about it!” Natsu complained. Then an idea struck him and he smiled wickedly, looking at Lisanna mischievously.

“Will this do?” he asked, grabbing Lisanna by the shoulders and pressing his lips to hers. He was faintly aware of what a cinematic picture they were making, stood on a rooftop above a sprawling city. The artificial sun was setting behind them. He felt Lisanna grasp his scarf and hold him close to her, keeping them locked in the embrace for several shining moments.

Lisanna let go of his scarf and Natsu gently pulled away. The holodeck was briefly quiet.

“That’s always a pretty good ending, right?” he said, good humor lighting up his face. Lisanna was smiling almost unconsciously.

“I’ll take it,” she agreed. “And check out that sunset. It’s pretty good for a holodeck.”

Natsu turned curiously to look at it, gravitating towards Lisanna as he did so. He easily slipped his hand into hers, a relaxed grin scrawled across his face.

“It isn’t bad, that’s for sure,” Natsu said gruffly, rubbing his thumb over Lisanna’s hand. He was feeling remarkably peaceful, an odd sensation for him.

“Yeah,” he said softly. “This is nice. Kind of thing I wouldn’t mind doing forever. What do you think, Lisanna?”

He could see her smile out of the corner of his eye. Butterflies danced in his stomach for a moment, pleasantly familiar.

“I’d like that very much,” she said.


End file.
